


complexities

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Multi, aged down some aged up some, comfort fic hrr, dont ask, doyoung is sick n tired, dreamies r either in college or hs, dumpster fire disguised with pretty words, everyone ends up in his apartment, its a long story, jisung just wants to go home, jisung may or may not be a theatre kid, kun is a mother hen, no rlly pls don't ask i dunno, one (1) nasty raccoon bite, taeil is scary @ first :P, yangyang has zero self-preservation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29803929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: the day to day lives of 23 lonely men who can't get any dates, get too many raccoon attacks, and definitely can't catch a break.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	complexities

i. doyoung 

doyoung watched through the curtains of his third floor picture window as a dented, mud-plastered white tesla pulled into the apartment driveway. looking across the way, he could see sicheng peeking through his blinds as well. taeyong, in the floor above sicheng, was nearly hanging out of his window, having removed the screen.

he sipped his coffee and observed as the car executed the worst three-point turn he’d ever seen. who was he to judge, though? he was the cause of the dent in taeil’s prius’ bumper just a few days ago. he consoled himself in the fact that he’d had the dignity to leave a note. if he completely ignored taeil’s angry banging on his door the next morning in favor of going back to bed, that was his business. johnny, the poor idiot, had opened the door and immediately slammed it again once he saw who was on the other side. 

“did you see--?” johnny appeared from the kitchen, where he must’ve been watching this unfold as well. doyoung hummed and pushed his glasses up into his hair. they were starting to get fogged up from his coffee. 

“wonder if they’re here to stay. if they are, they might have to fight you and mark for title of worst driver in the complex,” johnny wondered aloud. doyoung reached over and whacked his shoulder. 

“i’m not that bad. it was one time, okay? it was dark.” 

“it was like, three pm, and besides, that’s not a valid excuse for _hitting someone with your car._ ” 

“shut up! yangyang was fine: got right back up and smiled. pretty much bounced right off the asphalt! barely a scratch on him,” doyoung sniffed, looking away. 

“he probably got a concussion or something. at _least_.” johnny chugged his own coffee, pushing into doyoung’s personal space and obstructing his view. 

“can you please move? i’m trying to watch.” he hissed, body-checking johnny out of his way. 

“i’m not missing this; this is the most exciting thing that happened around here ever since louis got out.” his roommate hip-checked him right back. johnny worked from home for some tech company, and always found time to whine about how boring it was. at least he didn’t have a commute. or a boss who expected him to be a perfect suck-up. 

they mutually agreed to share the window-space, watching the tesla with identical looks of fascination. doyoung peered up to taeyong’s floor. the nurse was practically hanging out of his window, over his sad little flower box of dead tulips, also watching this development. 

the driver behind the wheel of the tesla was now carefully parking in between johnny’s massive chevy and taeil’s sad little grey prius. johnny seemed unconcerned about the well-being of his vehicle, while doyoung prayed for the chevrolet's safety. the tesla jostled taeil’s car, definitely leaving a sizeable scratch, and he and sicheng made eye contact, agreeing not to tell him. the new resident could experience taeil’s anger some other time. 

taeil wasn’t necessarily grumpy by nature, he’d just been trained and conditioned to be by multiple unfortunate events at the complex, such as a pack of raccoons raiding his apartment’s balcony, a robbery being committed while he slept, and an exploding microwave (doyoung is still confused as to how that would happen). he was the longest running tenant, and had seen (and heard, through the awfully thin walls) enough to traumatize the average person. doyoung couldn’t really blame him for being so short-tempered. 

tucking the curtains back into place, he fixed his tie, waved goodbye to johnny, and checked his hair in the hall mirror before setting off for work. he nearly ran into jeno at the door, the younger resident coming back from his early morning shift at the local starbucks. 

“hi, mr. kim!” he bowed, grinning and holding the door open. 

“i told you that makes me feel old; please just call me doyoung,” he sighed, tucking his folder under his arm to shake the boy's hand. 

“of course, mr. kim. ah, doyoung,” jeno sheepishly corrected himself before turning inside. “have a nice day!” 

“you too,” he called back, swinging his lanyard around his finger. looking up, the tesla, the reason for the new scratch on taeil’s bumper-stickered car, had finally been parked. a boy about jeno’s age but significantly shorter got out, using the door for support. 

“...hello,” doyoung greeted, pocketing his lanyard and looking over the rim of his glasses at the newcomer. 

“uhm, hello,” the boy greeted, an accent similar to the one sicheng had had lilting his voice, “do you know where... kun is?” 

“kun? qian kun?” doyoung confirmed. the boy nodded enthusiastically, navy-dyed hair flopping into his eyes. doyoung briefly wondered if this was another kid taken under kun’s wing. “second floor, first door on the left.” 

“huh?” the newcomer tilted his head and leaned closer. 

“second floor,” doyoung held up two fingers on one hand and pointed to kun’s window with the other, “first door on the left.” 

“thank you, sir,” the boy bowed deeply. doyoung basked in the respect. none of the kids except for jeno showed him any respect, despite his seniority. 

“you’re welcome. have a nice day,” doyoung waved before getting into his trusty camry, taking extra care to give taeil’s car an especially wide berth. it had taken enough damage for today. he pulled onto the road and set off for work.

he’d landed a job at a small law firm out of college, working as an office assistant to kim heechul, a pompous, altogether dick of a prosecutor. it was easy work, consisting of trailing mr. kim wherever he went and generally being a suck-up to his seniors. 

just another day to cross off of the sports illustrated swimsuit calendar he’d gotten from jaehyun as a gag gift. 

//

“hey, uh, kim?” leeteuk, one of the prosecutors at the firm, leaned into the glorified closet that doyoung called his ‘office’, “would you be a dear and fill these out for me? they’re about the kim case.” he tossed an overflowing manila folder of papers onto the desk. 

“i’m not yet qualified to--” doyoung glanced up to give leeteuk a withering glare, but the man was already gone. “i hate it here. so much. so, so, so, so, much.” he hissed, shoving the work he’d previously been occupied with off of his desk entirely and slamming leeteuk’s folder down with a thump. 

he shouldn’t let them walk all over him anymore. he should just go into heechul’s whiskey-scented office and ask for a raise if they were going to give him their work to do. he wasn’t going to stand for this kind of treatment. 

“kim?” ryeowook, one of the more tolerable prosecutors, peered in through the doorway. “can you please run down to the store and pick up some swiss miss packets for the lounge? i’ll pay you.” 

“of course!” doyoung grinned immediately, hating himself for it. ryeowook smiled and handed him a few bills, turning and skipping back down the hall to the break room. 

_this might be my villain origin story_ , doyoung pondered, tossing his blazer over his shoulder and heading out to his car. 

//

he came home at five thirty on the dot, as usual, to jeno and jaemin arguing in his parking spot. well, it wasn’t _his_ , but it had a giant pothole that usually deterred anyone else from parking there. doyoung laid on the horn for a solid ten seconds until they were out of his way. 

heechul had been a particular bother today, sending him off to a cafe on the other side of the city like some- some _errand-boy_ so that he and his coworkers could lounge around in the breakroom, sipping their overpriced and overcomplicated coffee orders while doyoung angrily drank his box of apple juice in the other room. at least ryeowook paid him for going down the road to get swiss miss. he parked and let his forehead thump onto the steering wheel. surely he could afford a few minutes to have a quarter-life crisis.

“doyoung.” taeil suddenly appeared in front of his car, arms crossed, still in his stained and bloody scrubs from work. 

“oh, hi taeil,” doyoung laughed uneasily. 

“hello. do you happen to know what happened to my car this morning?” taeil asked, stomping down off the curb to stand outside doyoung’s open window-- why had he opened the windows on the way home from work? 

“nope,” he lied, popping the ‘p’. taeil raised an eyebrow and stepped closer. “really! it wasn’t me.” 

“i don’t care if it wasn’t you, they tore my animal shelter volunteer bumper sticker. y’know, the one with the kitten on it. _my favorite_.”

“wasn’t me,” doyoung shrugged, still uneasy. “try asking sicheng.” he started to roll up his windows, signalling the end of the conversation.

“he doesn’t even have a car! it couldn’t’ve been him, he takes the bus!” 

“just-- ask sicheng,” doyoung emphasized. “have a good evening, taeil.” 

“goodnight, doyoung.” taeil shuffled back into the building. doyoung felt a bit guilty for throwing sicheng under the bus like that, but it had been a long day. 

he hurried upstairs in case taeil decided he had further questions. johnny opened the door for him, still in the same outfit he’d been in when doyoung had left: a crisp white button-up, red tie, and a pair of ratty sweatpants. 

“hey,” he greeted, already turning back to the kitchen where something was obviously charring on the stovetop. “i’m making eggs, if you want some. also,” johnny lowered his voice, “jaehyun’s here off of a bad date. don’t be as mean as usual, please.” he nodded. not willing to risk food poisoning, doyoung politely declined the eggs and kicked off his shoes, his argyle socks following. he shuffled into the living room, taking in jaehyun’s presence. he was curled up on his couch with his bare feet up, leaving humid prints on doyoung’s glass-top coffee table. 

“you’re here again?” he spat, knocking jaehyun’s feet off of the table as he passed. some ancient episode of seinfeld was playing, and jaehyun didn’t respond, just chuckled along with the laugh track on the show. doyoung gave up. 

jaehyun usually came over unannounced to hang out with johnny, although they rarely spoke to each other when he was over, as far as he knew. they seemed to just sit in the same room and eat all of doyoung’s food from the refrigerator. doyoung made his way, holding his breath, through the cloud of cologne that usually surrounded jaehyun and headed for his bedroom, which was the walk-in closet in johnny’s room (the result of a rigged game of rock-paper-scissors when they first moved in).   
at least he’d added nice floral wallpaper and even a painting of a field. it made it seem more homey. there was barely room for anything other than his mattress, so he installed a clothing rack in the coat closet by the door, which admittedly was a bad choice. it had led to many towel-clad journeys across the living room, leaving a trail of water behind him, which led to johnny slipping and banging his head on the coffee table multiple times. 

served him right for eating all of his takeout leftovers out of the fridge while doyoung was at work. 

he was halfway through getting into a cozier outfit when jaehyun called for him. he stomped to the doorframe and just poked his head out since he had yet to put on a shirt. 

“thicheng’th here,” he slurred through a mouthful of leftover pad thai, pointing with a single chopstick to the entryway. 

“tell him to come in, then.” 

“tell ‘im yourthelf!” jaehyun shovelled more noodles into his mouth. “why do you alwayth get everythin’ wif tofu? tofu’th groth.” he asked, still staring at the television.

“you’re a child,” doyoung sighed, “and i’m vegetarian…? have you not noticed?” doyoung retreated back into his room, “sicheng, you can come in,” doyoung added, tugging on a hoodie that probably didn’t belong to him and reemerging. sicheng was standing in the entryway, looking murderous.

“why did you tell taeil to come over?” he hissed, pulling doyoung closer by the neck of the hoodie. 

“i’m sorry,” he whispered, “i had to. i couldn’t just set taeil on the kid on his first day.” 

“i get it. you like kids,” doyoung did _not_ like kids. jeno was an exception. he allowed sicheng to continue, “you just wanted to help him; but never send taeil over. ever.” 

doyoung just nodded, stepping back into the relative safety of his living room. “i guess you can come in.” 

“oh, hi, win. want some eggs?” johnny shuffled out of the kitchen, charred plate of unrecognizable food in his hands. sicheng immediately shook his head. “your loss.” johnny shrugged, flopping onto doyoung’s couch next to jaehyun. 

“what’s he doing here again? doesn’t he have his own apartment?” sicheng asked quietly, tossing his head to jaehyun. 

“yeah. i guess he had a tinder date that didn’t go very well so… now he’s brooding here instead of his ‘bachelor pad’, for whatever reason.” doyoung sat on the opposite end of the couch as jaehyun, as far away as possible, while sicheng just plopped down on the floor. 

they all settled in, ignoring the thumps and frustrated screamed curses from the neighbor upstairs (they’d just moved in and were having a difficult time assembling their ikea furniture. doyoung had already nagged johnny into going up to help them out tomorrow afternoon).

johnny picked at the least-burned parts of his egg, jaehyun finished the stolen pad thai (abandoning the to-go container on the coffee table as usual), sicheng tilted his head at the screen, attempting to understand the jokes on the show, and doyoung desperately wished he was somewhere else. 

if only he’d gone to medical school rather than law school, like his parents had wanted. maybe he’d be in a hospital, saving someone’s life, or at home in some fancy modern mansion, drinking fine wine with cubed cheese and cuddled up to a significant other, watching a romcom. maybe he’d have a cat, and a boat that he never used, and a lexus-- 

jaehyun accidentally kicked him in the side of the head as he stretched out to take up the entirety of the couch, knocking him from his unattainable daydream and back into his disappointing reality. 

“sorry,” jaehyun belatedly apologized, eyes still glued to the tv. doyoung nodded once, accepting it anyway, and went back to watching elaine and jerry argue. sicheng tilted his head back onto the edge of the coffee table and shut his eyes, clearly giving up on figuring out what was going on since he’d started watching halfway through the episode. 

doyoung had watched every episode at least three times seeing as it was johnny’s favorite show to use as background noise. he started nodding off, hanging in the pleasant fog between asleep and awake for a few hours until johnny asked him to run down to the store to get some more popcorn. 

“sure,” he agreed, surprising himself. usually he’d tell johnny to send jaehyun or to just go get it himself. he nudged sicheng, walking him up, and told him to go back home to sleep unless he wanted to sleep in the closet. 

“thanks.” johnny murmured. doyoung hummed and bundled himself up in his parka, hooking sicheng’s elbow and shuffling down the hall with him to his apartment. he was lucky enough to not have a roommate, plus he lived on the bottom floor with all the old ladies and taeil. speaking of taeil, doyoung crept down the hall and didn’t speak, afraid that taeil would hear him and emerge from the beat-up door down the hall. 

“goodnight,” he mouthed, pushing sicheng into his own apartment. 

“night,” sicheng whispered back. doyoung ran away and into the main hall, where he was nearly mowed down by jeno, on his skateboard, followed by jisung. jisung was obviously in the process of learning how to skate, evident by the scrapes on his chin and elbows. 

“hi, doyoung!” jeno greeted, his signature scrunched up grin on his face. doyoung lifted his index finger to his lips, shushing him. 

“good evening, sir.” jisung whispered, obviously getting the hint. 

“he doesn’t like to be called that.” jeno neatly hopped off of his skateboard and stomped on one side, flipping it up into his hand to carry. jisung, seeing this, attempted it but failed miserably. 

“didn’t kun tell you not to ride those in the hallways anymore after hyuck got mowed down?” 

“...yes,” jeno mumbled. 

“then at least make sure nobody’s watching. you’ve got my permission to run jaehyun over, though. he’ll have it coming.” 

“are we your hired hitmen now?” jisung clumsily got back onto the board, wobbling. 

“i guess so. he’s been moping around my apartment after his date went south. he’s eating us out of house and home, at this point.” 

“we just don’t have food.” jeno said, frowning, “we get takeout.”

doyoung sighed. “how are you and jaemin still _alive_? you kids don’t know how to take care of yourselves. come on, we’re going to the store.” 

no, doyoung didn’t like kids. teenagers, either. young adults were a headache. however, he felt some awful sense of responsibility to make sure the kids could stay alive, seeing as they had little (jeno) to no (yangyang) self preservation and their parents either lived far away or had no interest in taking them back in. of course, his sense of responsibility was nowhere near kun’s, who was a full-on mother hen at this point, but he still wanted to check in on them every now and then. 

“really?” jeno gaped, “i mean. thank you.” 

“i’ll even take you to whole foods. on me,” doyoung added. he didn’t really need that aquarium he was saving up for anyway. besides, jeno, jaemin, and jisung practically lived on instant food and pizza these days. renjun was the only one who knew basic cooking. 

“yeah. c’mon, i haven’t got all night.” doyoung waved them along with him to his car. 

“SHOTGUN!” jisung screeched, seemingly on instinct. he apologized profusely immediately afterwards.

“usually jaemin beats me to it,” he explained. 

“your car smells really good,” jeno said from the backseat, “like… paper. and old people.” doyoung wasn’t sure how that was a good thing, but thanked jeno anyway. 

“can we please listen to the radio?” jisung asked, hesitant. 

“sure.” doyoung turned on the stereo and was immediately assaulted with npr on max volume. jeno screamed and covered his ears as the reporter droned about the amazon jungle. doyoung managed to turn it down and switch it to a y2k station. 

jeno and jisung proceeded to sing along increasingly louder to gwen stefani all the way to whole foods. 

“alright, jeno, you’re pushing the cart. jisung, follow me.” 

// 

around thirty seconds later, doyoung was regretting his decision to appoint jeno to cart-pushing. he nearly ran down an old man about ten feet into the store, then overcorrected himself and ran over doyoungs toes. 

“alright, so i’ll push the cart. we’re going to the dry foods section first, to get pasta and crackers and everything basic, then we can go to the freezer aisles for ready-to-cook stuff.” he announced, already wheeling away from the two. he understood why his mother used to hate taking him shopping with her as a child-- jisung just plodded after him like a lost puppy and tried to sneak cereal into the cart, and jeno disappeared every few seconds, reemerging with something that he’d never use and asking for it with those stupid puppy eyes of his.

“no.”

“nope.” 

“not today.” 

“why would you even need that?” he wrinkled his nose at a full wheel of gourmet cheese that jeno was holding. 

“it’s cool.” jeno shrugged. 

“put it back.” 

“but it’s cool!” jisung whined for a few more seconds until doyoung looked at him over the top of his glasses. apparently he had perfected his ‘do not argue with me’ glare. he mentally patted himself on the back. 

“that should be it.” doyoung placed the last item, a box of ritz crackers, on top of the pile in the cart. 

“this is how much you have to buy?” jeno marvelled. 

“yes, this is what adulthood is like.” doyoung said drily. he could practically see the fund for his aquarium drying up. 

“can we please get gum?” jisung begged, and doyoung was opening his mouth to say no when jeno turned and activated his puppy eyes. doyoung averted his gaze, because jeno had discovered that that face of his could be _weaponized_ and he had since used it to get whatever he wanted. 

“no, we’re getting coffee on the way back as a treat.” 

“jaemin says i shouldn’t have caffeine after two pm, though,” jisung whined. 

“just don’t tell him, then?” doyoung suggested, frowning. 

“jisung gets really hyper when he has coffee.” jeno informed, nodding wisely. “he talks for hours.” 

“fine, just get gum, then. watermelon, please,” doyoung sighed. 

“i actually like bubblemint better.” jeno piped up nervously. jeno clutches the bubblemint gum to his chest and only hands it over to the cashier when they need to scan it. 

doyoung winces and kisses his dreams of the aquarium goodbye when it’s time to pay.

// 

“thank you!” jisung finally says, hopping out of the car again once they’re back at the apartment complex. 

“yeah, yeah. don’t tell anyone i did this; they’ll think i’m getting soft,” doyoung grumbled and grabbed the remaining two grocery bags, and he forgot the popcorn which was _literally_ all he was meant to be buying in the first place. he followed the two up to their apartment and set the bags down on the counter. 

jisung immediately gestured for them to shut up because the tiny curled up lump on the floor in front of the register was jaemin and he had to go to work soon. doyoung couldn’t quite remember what jaemin did; honestly he’d thought the boy was unemployed. they wordlessly unpacked the bags, filling up the cabinets and cleaning out the unidentifiable remains of food from the fridge shelves. 

jeno didn’t lie; their cabinets were _bare_ with the exception of one can of expired tuna and a jar of something that might’ve been kimchi at some point but hadn’t been refrigerated. the entire place smelled like axe body spray and peppermint from the essential oil dispenser in the corner (definitely jaemin’s), and doyoung knew he couldn’t leave them living like this. 

maybe he could visit once a week to cook for them. it couldn’t hurt. 

jeno sat up on the counter and yawned, covering his mouth with his sleeve. 

“you look tired, and i need to get back to my own apartment. i left johnny and jaehyun in there without adult supervision,” he said. jeno took it as a joke and snickered. jisung reappeared from the little hallway and announced his presence with ‘enter stage left: jisung’, with little jazz hands. doyoung furrowed his brows. 

“he was a theatre kid in high school and never really grew out of it, watch,” jeno whispered, “we start with stars in our eyes--” 

“we start believing that we belong…” jisung finished quietly, seemingly unconscious of it until he glanced up and saw doyoung barely containing his laughter.

“night,” he waved awkwardly and tiptoed into the living room, tapping jaemin to wake him up and wincing at the smack he received as a consequence. “c’mon, you need to get up for work-- hey, hey, hey, don’t pull me down-- let go!” jisung pleaded as jaemin tugged him down into a hug. jeno started water for coffee in some vintage kettle that was burned so badly doyoung could no longer tell what color it used to be. he felt out of place. 

“have a good night. you two need to get your rest.” 

“i’m not going to sleep; i’m getting ready for work before school. only jisung gets to sleep… three hours? yeah, three hours. he’s got school soon.” jeno laughed in a self-deprecating manner. 

“how many jobs do you _have_?” doyoung asked. 

“as many as it takes to pay for my tuition,” jeno sighed and stared into the space to the left of doyoung’s head for a moment. he averted his gaze back to where jisung was unsuccessfully trying to free himself from jaemin’s clutches.

“i love you,” jaemin singsonged, pulling jisung back down on top of himself and wrapping his arms and legs around him like a big sleep deprived koala. 

“i know,” jisung whined, prying one of jaemin’s legs off of him. “now let go of me, you leech.”

“i’ve got to get going. it’s… oh. it’s three in the morning, now.” doyoung startled, looking at his phone. “i’ve got work in the morning.” 

“have a nice night,” jeno called over the muffled screams of jisung, then shut their apartment door, the christmas wreath that they haven’t taken down yet shaking dead needles all over doyoungs slippers.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u 4 reading! if u enjoyed it pls leave kudos +/- a comment ! they rlly help to boost my motivation 2 keep writin :D


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